


stop there, let me perfect it

by deathsbinky



Category: Jennifer's Body (2009)
Genre: F/F, Soulmate AU, but the movie still happens?, chip is there or whatever, extensive usage of song titles, since the movie happens there's descriptions of some blood and stuff, yall know what's up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:40:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25216381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deathsbinky/pseuds/deathsbinky
Summary: Sandbox love meets soulmates. Jennifer and Needy see color when they first meet each other- who else would it be?
Relationships: Jennifer Check/Anita "Needy" Lesnicki
Comments: 14
Kudos: 269





	stop there, let me perfect it

**PART I: ALWAYS FOREVER**

They’ve been able to see colors for almost as long as they can remember; they meet on the first day of kindergarten, so any hazy black and grey memories are mostly gone over time. Jennifer, who has the better memory, can still recall the lonely, desolate landscape of Devil’s Kettle in washed-out grey tones, but Needy’s oldest memory is the day they met. 

Needy was in the sandbox at recess, digging for treasure, and Jennifer, young and sweet, had wandered up and asked to play with her, and as their eyes met: bam. 

Color, vivid and true. 

The clear blue of Jennifer’s eyes was the first color Needy ever saw, but there was the rich black of her hair, the pearl of her skin, and the green of her shirt… Jennifer, five years old, was perfect. 

To Jennifer, Needy looked like a baby angel, with her sweet face and messy golden hair, so she reached out and took her hand. 

They didn’t know what it meant yet but they knew that it was special. 

“What are you doing?” Jennifer asked. 

“Digging,” Needy answered, “For treasure. Like pirates bury.” 

Jennifer nodded. “Okay. Then we’ll do it together.” 

They hold hands for the rest of recess, and they’re best friends forever after that. 

**PART II: SLEEPOVER**

Later people call them “platonic soulmates”- sure, you’re soulmates and you love each other, but you’re like sisters, their parents tell them. This is pretty big gossip in their town, so a lot of people know and think it’s adorable when they’re kids. 

There’s not a lot of soulmates in Devil’s Kettle. There’s a few, obviously, and Jennifer and Needy, but they’re the only platonic ones. How could two girls be anything else? 

In Jennifer’s eyes, this makes them only better. Her parents have recently divorced, just like Needy’s did when she was born, and she, at eleven, thinks that love is the enemy. 

“See, romance and marriage and stuff just ruins things,” Jennifer explains to Needy at one of their weekly sleepovers. “We’re best friends, and best friends never get divorced.” 

Needy reaches over and holds Jennifer’s hand. “We’re never getting divorced,” she says, comfortingly. 

When they get a little older their sleep overs turn into playing boyfriend-girlfriend. Jennifer tells Needy that this isn’t like when other kids play house at recess because they’re soulmates, and this is just shifting into a different kind of relationship, but the kids at recess are all “bullshit grey fakers” unlike them. 

Needy smiles and holds Jennifer’s hand and kisses her, even when Jennifer insists on making her the boyfriend all the time. 

“I’m the girl,” Jennifer always says. 

“I’m also a girl,” Needy points out. 

“We can’t both be the girlfriend, Needy. That’s stupid as hell.” Jennifer thinks that knowing swear words in third grade is cool, and she’s right. 

“Why not?” Needy asks. 

“That’s not how it works,” Jennifer says, and her cool blue eyes cut Needy off from saying anything more. “Now put on the tie.” 

Needy puts on the tie. It’s Jennifer’s dad’s and it’s got a chunky grey pattern that contrasts with Needy’s pink shirt. Sloppily, with her chubby kid fingers, Needy does her best at tying it. 

“Where did you learn that?” Jennifer asks, reaching out to touch the knot. 

“My mom used to be in Girl Scouts,” Needy says, “Back when they had ties.” 

“We should be Girl Scouts. You get free stuff, right?” 

“No, I don’t think so,” Needy says. She does think that Jennifer would be the cutest Girl Scout in the world, though. 

“Ugh. Plus, Wendy Stoll is in the Girl Scouts and she’s gross. I saw her eat a rolly polly at recess,” Jennifer shares. They both laugh. 

Needy reaches over and links hands with Jennifer, then, once Jennifer’s hand is warm and comforting in hers, leans in and pecks her on the lips. 

“I’m home,” she says. 

“Good,” Jennifer replies. 

**PART III: THE MOST POPULAR GIRL IN SCHOOL**

Needy thinks it’s kind of cheating, that she gets to experience Jennifer in full color when so many people don’t. It makes her feel special, and maybe that’s why she spends so much time looking at Jennifer in awe. The purple of her color guard uniform, the bright colors she picks to highlight her special vision- everything about Jennifer glows. 

By the time they reach high school, Jennifer has blossomed into her full Snowflake Queen self. She’s the hottest thing at Devil’s Kettle. Her hair is long and black and glossy, her complexion is flawless, and she’s sharper than most people think. Sharp enough, certainly, to quell anything bad said about Needy. Sometimes Needy knows, sometimes she doesn’t- Jennifer is a possessive person, and Needy is hers. Even if Needy is kind of a dweeb. Seriously, Jennifer says, if Needy would skip one class with her… 

Jennifer’s dated half the football team and sometimes moves on to college boys. From what Needy can tell, they like each other for the same reasons: no chance of serious connection. She’s not jealous like Jennifer gets, sometimes, which is why neither of them have any other friends, but she can’t help but want Jennifer next to her all the time. 

They were almost separated at the start of high school; people were under the impression that Jennifer would cave to popularity. She’s always been vainer than Needy, but she’s not shallow. There’s no amount of football/color guard parties that could seduce her away from Needy. 

Needy only went to one of those parties once- it was annoying, with the multicolored lights and the people shouting. The football boys wanted to flirt with Jennifer and Needy didn’t want to drink, so the whole affair was pretty pointless. She mostly stuck to the corner of the living room watching Jennifer dance to the thumping music, drinking a gross-looking liquid. Needy bet that the only reason everybody else was drinking it was because they didn’t know what color it was- a brackish brown-green. It tasted like a gas fire, but Needy raised the cup to drain the last of it anyway. This was the teen experience, after all. 

When she lowered the cup, two of Jennifer’s color guard friends, a blonde and a brunette, had appeared. For all that Needy had gone to school with the same people her whole life, she could not recall their names whatsoever. 

“Anita,” the blonde one said. 

“Hi,” she said. 

They smiled coyly. 

“Is it true that you and Jennifer are really soulmates?” the brunette asked. 

The blonde one gasped and elbowed the other like this wasn’t a totally planned setup. 

“Wow, she doesn’t even like, know who we are though,” the blonde said. 

“I’m Ashleigh,” the brunette offered. 

“I’m Brittany,” the blonde said. 

“I guess you already know who I am,” Needy said, trying to see over their shoulders to where Jennifer could be. 

“We do,” Ashleigh and Brittany cooed in unison. 

Needy sighed. “Great.” 

“Are you and Jennifer really soulmates, though,” Ashleigh said. “‘Cause she says so.” 

“What, like she’d lie?” Needy rolled her eyes. “Who would lie about that?” 

“Are you registered?” Brittany asked. 

A flash of twirling dark hair caught Needy’s eye, but it wasn’t Jennifer- “Since we were six. BFF’s for life,” Needy said, shortly. 

Ashleigh and Brittany laughed. 

“So cute,” Ashleigh said. “What color is my top?”

“Blue,” Needy said. She was used to this game; she played it with about everybody who knew she could see color. “Your pants are also blue, her shirt is green, her skirt is purple.” 

“Wow,” Brittany said, sounding surprised. 

Jennifer, suddenly, appeared in the doorway of the kitchen holding two cups of the swill. Needy made frantic eye contact with her. Jennifer slunk over, passing the cups off to two strangers, and pushed through Ashleigh and Brittany to sling an arm over Needy’s shoulder. Possessive, Needy thought, not without fondness. 

“Hey,” Jennifer said, smiling like a predator that had just spotted a three-legged deer. “What’s up with you guys?” 

“Uh, getting to know Anita,” Ashleigh said. “Since she’s like, your soulmate.” 

“She is,” Jennifer said firmly. She pulled Needy flush against her. 

“Oh-kay,” Ashley and Brittney sighed, exchanging looks. 

Jennifer glared at them until they scurred off. “Bye,” she sang after them. 

“Leeches,” she said to Needy. 

This did not help the rumors that they were lesbi-gay. 

Jennifer and Needy will always have each other, even though Needy’s dating Chip now. 

Chip is fine. Jennifer obviously hates him, but it’s not like Needy likes Jennifer’s boys either. They both believe that they could do nebulously “better”, though neither of them know, at that point, what it means, or even say it to each other. 

Chip is a decent guy who respects Needy, and only gets a little jealous over Jennifer’s power over Needy. It makes sense- after all, what’s a high school boyfriend compared to a soulmate? But Needy lets him love her, fuck her, and she loves him back too. 

But sandbox love, soulmate love, never dies. 

It’s Wednesday and Jennifer wants to go see some band called Low Shoulder, so instead of spending the night with Chip, Needy and Jennifer are going to Melody Lanes. It’s really Jennifer who likes these kinds of bands, but Needy’s willing to go along. If Jennifer wants to fuck some guy wearing eyeliner then fine, she thinks, semi-bitter as they enter the bar. 

She wishes she could turn back time, after that night, because Low Shoulder is more than guys wearing eyeliner and it all becomes a blur after she defends her soulmate and fire breaks out and Jennifer gets into a van. 

**PART IV: DEMONS ARE A GIRL’S BEST FRIEND**

The colors go out. Needy is in her bedroom on her computer and all of the sudden the world is made grey- like nothing she’s ever known- but they come back. Thank god, they only flicker, and they come back. Needy is scared out of her mind and Jennifer wanders in and throws up black garbage on the floor and passed out on Needy’s bed and the colors keep going in and out like a TV with bad reception and she doesn’t know what’s happening but it’s Low Shoulder’s fault- Low Shoulder’s fault- _Jennifer_ … 

Jennifer, on the other hand, remembers nothing of her first hours as a member of the undead. She’s sorry for scaring Needy later, obviously, but it’s mostly a blank slate and flashes of a deep, ravenous hunger. It wants blood and squirming flesh and raw things, yawning within her, a void of teeth and carnivorous desires. 

It’s not being horny and it’s not being hungry, exactly, but a furious combination of both that scrapes at her insides, like she swallowed needles. 

Not Needy, she tells it when she wakes up from the beeping of Needy’s alarm. Her arm is slung over Needy’s waist and their legs are tangled; per usual cuddling position for them. She snuggles into the warmness of Needy while she’s still out. The colors are normal and she looks normal even though the last thing she can think of is the white-hot pain of a knife buried into her chest. Needy is sound asleep beside her, fingertips black and golden bedhead frizzing out in all directions. 

Jennifer pets Needy’s hair to wake her up. “Hey,” she whispers. 

Needy cracks an eye and blinks at her. “Mhmm,” she says, leaning into Jennifer’s touch, until she startles awake and bolts up. “Jennifer!” 

“Yes,” Jennifer purrs, “That’s me.” 

“What the fuck,” Needy says. She blinks and rubs at her eyes and then, with more feeling, “What the FUCK.” 

Jennifer strokes Needy’s hair some more. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?” 

“You almost died!” Needy cries. “The colors left!” 

“Yeah, but I didn’t,” Jennifer says, and leans down so that her breath is warm against Needy’s ear and she can hear Needy’s heart rate pick up because her hearing is like, sonar now, and smell Needy’s strawberry shampoo. “I’m a god, Needs. It’s like, keeping me here.” 

**PART V: HELL AND YOU**

Jennifer was murdered, Needy thinks hysterically. She was murdered and then she came back. 

Jennifer is hungry, always hungry, and Needy doesn’t know what to do. She’s spiraling. Jennifer’s confusing and Chip is always asking for her and she went to the library and it’s like she doesn’t even know who Jennifer is anymore. For the first time she looks at Jennifer and it’s like there’s a totally new thing in her place, wearing her beautiful face and her cold blue eyes. Her hands are cold and her heart doesn’t beat. 

Things become... difficult. They’re more apart than they’ve ever been, for all that they remain stuck together. Jennifer is more possessive, though she dates more boys now. Every few weeks she consumes, from the football players to the goth kids. She’s had at least four. 

“You can’t keep doing this, Jennifer,” Needy says, softly. 

Jennifer ignores her and refreshes her deep red lipstick. 

One of the downsides of color is seeing the bodies and their red blood and fleshy guts. 

Needy can’t stop her, because Jennifer is her soulmate, whatever Jennifer is now is her soulmate. Her forever. Sandbox love never dies. She doesn’t know if she’d want to. The only solution any of the books proposed was killing her- Needy couldn’t kill Jennifer because killing Jennifer would be killing her own self. 

She asks Jennifer: “Do you think getting rid of it would- kill you?” 

“You saw what happened when it got inside me, Needs,” Jennifer says. “Went all grey. Not the greatest, for us.” 

“So you think it would, then?” Needy presses on. 

Jennifer sighs. “Yeah, I guess. Whatever.” 

Needy has to keep looking for something else. She owes so many late fees because if she returns the books to the library somebody else could find them and use them- she could never do that. So she keeps looking. Surprisingly, not a lot of people have thought about removing demons outside of exorcism, even though there’s a lot of information on summoning them. Chip breaks up with her after she asks him to take out books on demonology for her, and she turns to the internet. Jennifer preens when she hears the news. 

“He wasn’t as good at playing boyfriend-girlfriend as I was,” she says, and flips her glossy hair over her shoulder. She’s beautiful. She just ate Matthew Michaelson. 

She presses a kiss to Needy’s cheek and leaves Needy to her internet searching. 

Needy doesn’t know what Jennifer does at night but she doesn’t think she’d want to, anyway. Soulmates don’t need to know everything about each other to love. 

Later that night, before Jennifer returns and when the full moon shines through Jennifer’s bedroom window and Needy stares blearily at the red-on-black theme of the website gothic-demons-and-death.com, she comes across an ad for Low Shoulder’s new tour. Sold out, it says. Resale tickets available. 

Needy hates Low Shoulder more than even Jennifer does, and one time Jennifer shoved a a freshman into the lockers for wearing their merch. Ruining their lives so that they could become what? Pop-punk’s Maroon Five? 

Out of pure hatred she clicks on their site just to look at his face more and fuel her rage. What was his name? Nick something, or whatever. 

The website subsequently informs her of two facts: 

One: it’s Nikolai. 

Two: Low Shoulder has agreed to perform at her prom out of deep sorrow for the tragedy of Melody Lane. 

Clicking back to her other tab gives her the critical third piece: 

Three: How To Remove A Demon 

**PART VI: IN THE NEXT LIFE**

When they were in middle school, they planned on getting far away from Devil’s Kettle, like pretty much every kid in Devil’s Kettle did. The worst thing, they both agreed, would be to live and die in their town. They both took French in school because Jennifer thought it was the sexiest language, so they would run away to France, or French Canada, or, as Needy helpfully pointed out, Belgium, which is also a francophone country. 

They had just given each other their BFF necklaces- it was Needy’s birthday and Jennifer splurged, which for a middle schooler meant tacky jewelry she bought with money she stole from her dad. Jennifer was too impatient to make friendship bracelets, anyway. 

“And we’re going to be really sexy and speak French and eat those croissants,” Jennifer said. 

Needy nodded and wrote “be sexy, eat croissants” on Jennifer’s To Do List. 

“Okay, now read it to me,” Jennifer said, jumping onto Needy’s bed and leaning over her shoulder. 

“You can read,” Needy said. 

Jennifer poked her side, making her yelp, and said, “Don’t be a little bitch. Read it.” 

Needy sighed. “Jennifer’s To Do List: Go to someplace where they speak French. See the ocean. See sexy guys. Be sexy. Eat croissants. Needy’s To Do List: Go to college-” 

“Lame,” Jennifer interrupted. 

“Go to college with Jennifer,” Needy amended. 

“Like you’d go anywhere without me.” 

“Anyway,” Needy continued, “Go to a place where they speak French. Maybe Canada. See an ocean. See the world. Get a Master’s degree, maybe?” 

“You’re such a nerd,” Jennifer teased. 

“It’s not nerdy to want to go to college,” Needy said. 

“Whatever.” 

Needy shook her head. 

“We’re doing it together, either way,” Jennifer said. “See the world. See sexy guys. Go to college.” 

They fall back on Needy’s bed together. “Want to go watch Buffy?” Needy asked. 

Jennifer tucked her head into the crook of Needy’s shoulder. “In a minute.” 

Now Jennifer is something that Buffy would murder and she lived and died in Devil’s Kettle. Is this what Needy wants for Jennifer? Is this the way that Needy wants Jennifer? Even if she’s not the same as she once was, not the same girl that would do magazine quizzes during sleepovers? Is Needy even the same? They both still see color- the real proof that they’re still Jennifer and Needy, though rearranged. 

Jennifer probably wouldn’t rate France or even sexy guys high up on her bucket list anymore, but she still deserves to have any experience she wanted, or at least Needy seems to believe she does. And if Needy could believe in her- well, Needy lets Jennifer copy off her in Biology, so this is just like that, right? Needy does the research and Jennifer cuts open the frogs. 

**PART VII: DANCE MACABRE**

Jennifer hopes that Needy’s plan will work, but if it doesn’t, what’s to lose? It’s a free meal, and conditioner doesn’t help much anymore. And, double annoying, Needy has made her hold off on eating for the last two weeks. Jennifer’s so hungry that she could start chewing bunnies up, like she’s a mountain lion or something stupid like that. They’re not too far away from the gym, so Jennifer can catch the dumb music the DJ is playing and the smell of sweat, and she’s _hungry_ , for fuck’s sake. 

There’s a sweetness to the fear that mortals experience around her now. They don’t consciously realize it, but their little monkey brains go _run, fool_ , when Jennifer’s around. Needy smells like it but less so and more like concern. Fear reminds her of the metallic tang of blood, the cloying sweetness of fresh and how it sours when left to clot. She likes blood a lot now, but it’s human flesh that keeps her looking sharp. 

Either way. Her and Needy are walking to school through the woods before prom with a big kitchen knife and printed-out pages from the website in Needy’s clutch, looking like total idiots in full formal dress surrounded by the trees and dirt. Their moms ribbed them for going without dates, but with Needy looking like a princess in her poofy pink dress and her hair all curled- who needed a boy? They took cheesy photos in lame poses and set off and that was that. 

Jennifer’s not scared to be out at dark because she’s the worst thing that could be here, but the wind through the leaves creates a sense of whispers in the hallway just below your hearing. Needy looks a little freaked whenever a branch creaks too loudly and inches ever closer to Jennifer. Like, her night vision is great now. She’s the apex predator. Nothing is going to happen. 

“God, could this plan be any lamer?” Jennifer complains to take Needy’s mind off of it. She just thinks too much for her own good sometimes. 

“Yes,” Needy says. “You could be in a tree.” 

“Really?” Jennifer perks up. 

Needy rolls her eyes. “No, you can’t be in a tree.” 

“Boring,” Jennifer says. “Next time I should make the plans.” 

“Uh, you have been making the plans. They all sucked,” Needy says. “They were just like, murder. That’s not a plan.” 

Jennifer chooses to ignore this in favor of the smell of a boy coming through the trees. “Somebody’s coming,” she tells Needy. 

“Who?” 

“I don’t know! God, Needs, I can’t do everything!” 

Needy presses close to Jennifer’s back. Jennifer could smell her perfume; it must’ve been new, since she didn’t recognize it. Needy usually smelled like her shampoo and whatever detergent her mom uses, but this is more floral. It’s nice, Jennifer thinks, ducking a bit to smell it more. 

“It’s Chip!” Needy hisses. 

Jennifer looks up from her contemplation of Needy and growls. “What the fuck is he doing,” she says. “He’s so-” she screws up her face. “Clingy.” 

Needy elbows her. 

Chip kicks at the leaves and fiddles with the ends of his stupid scarf- what dipshit wears a scarf to prom?- as he walks through the woods. 

“He looks like an idiot,” Jennifer says, stepping towards him; Needy grabs at her dress to stop her, but it’s too late. 

Jennifer knows that even half-starved, the moonlight is generous and her white dress makes her glow. “Hey, Chip,” she purrs. 

“Jen,” Chip says. “W-what are you doing here?” 

“Pregaming prom,” she answers. Neither of them are going to believe a single word coming out of her mouth anyway. 

“In the woods?” Chip asks, like an idiot. 

She rolls her eyes and stalks forward. She had wanted to kill him even when she was human anyway, and now his death would serve a purpose. 

Chip backs up to a big pine tree. His stupid tie and his stupid cumberbund are different colors of green, and she can tell it isn’t even on purpose because his scarf is an awful yellow. 

“Going anywhere?” 

Chip shakes his head. 

“Jennifer, no,” Needy shouts, stepping out from behind the tree. 

“Jennifer, yes!” She stomps her foot. “I’m hungry!” She slams Chip back to the tree and pins him there. 

“Can you not stick to the plan for five minutes?” Needy asks. She appears at Jennifer’s side and puts a hand on her arm. “Plus, Chip’s nice.” 

“Chip sucks.” Jennifer sulks but takes her hands off of Chip anyway. 

He focuses his attentions on Needy and Jennifer tunes him out to watch Needy. She doesn’t look too interested in what he has to say, but her big blue eyes do grow softer as he bumbles through some kind of prom-related garbage. God. 

He smells like teenage boy, fear, and, grossly enough, horniness, which makes Jennifer want to rip his arteries out. 

“Okay, great. Bye,” Jennifer says, interrupting Chip. 

They both turn to look at her, Chip with irritation and Needy with- something else. 

Chip starts: “Listen-” 

“Leave,” Jennifer growls, and Chip scampers off. She turns back to Needy and take a step closer, breathing in Needy’s nice perfume for prom and her big blue eyes and the way she didn’t smell scared anymore as Jennifer got closer. “Let’s do it,” she says to Needy, strong and sure. 

Needy nods. “Let’s do it.” 

**PART VIII: CHOKE**

They don’t want to risk Low Shoulder seeing them, so they wait outside by their tour bus like Needy planned. It’s nothing like their old van, which Jennifer told her looked like something a homeless man would abduct children in for Satan. They lean up against the side facing away from the door; prom should be ending any minute now- it’s almost 12:30, and Low Shoulder would leave after the students did. 

“What do you think would be happening, if Low Shoulder never came to town?” Needy asks. 

“Like, for Prom?” Jennifer appears to think about it. “We’d probably get a shitty DJ, like Mike Torres’ brother, who graduated two years ago and sells bad weed?” 

Needy laughs. “No, us. What would we be doing for prom?” 

“I guess you’d go with Chip,” Jennifer says, rolling her eyes. “I’d take some guy from a sports team or whatever. Maybe one of the guys I ate- they were salty. We’d end up hanging out together no matter what.” 

“Yeah,” Needy says. She reaches out and brushes her fingers against Jennifer’s, an invitation that Jennifer accepts, lacing their fingers together. Like always, it sparks a certain warmth inside her, reminding her of why they’re doing this. She can’t let Jennifer eat people forever. She wants Jennifer to be able to actually live a life with her, to hell with Low Shoulder. Jennifer is her soulmate. 

They both straighten up as they hear Low Shoulder coming out of the back door of the gym. 

Supernaturally fast, Jennifer whips around the bus and tears into them. Needy hangs back and tries to block out the sounds of muffled screaming and broken bones. 

After what feels like an hour but could only be a few minutes, Needy goes around to find Low Shoulder panting and crying on the ground, Jennifer lording above them splattered in their blood. 

“Okay,” Needy says. “Now-” 

She’s interrupted by the bus door opening for a burly guy in a SECURITY shirt. He takes one step off the bus and Jennifer kicks him in the crotch so hard it starts to bleed. 

“Now-” Needy tries again. 

“Oh my god!” screams a voice from inside the bus. Two groupies and a sleezey guy with a clipboard pile out. Jennifer looks almost bored as she slams them into the side of the bus. 

“What is this, a clown car?” Jennifer complains. 

“I didn’t know they’d bring an entourage!” Needy shouts, then sighs, bringing a hand to her head. “Put them on the bus, please.” 

Jennifer pokes her head in. “Nobody else home,” she reports. “Like, all of them on the bus?” 

Needy shakes her head, realizes Jennifer can’t see her and says, “No, just Low Shoulder. We have to take them back to Devil’s Kettle.” 

“Ugh,” Jennifer whines, throwing Low Shoulder up and onto the floor of the bus near the back exit. “This is so much work.” 

Needy decides not to reply and goes up to the driver’s seat. 

She stares at the controls. “Do you know how to drive a bus?” 

“Why in hell would I know how to drive a bus.” 

“It’s kind of like a car, maybe?” Needy presses one of the pedals and moves one of the sticks and the bus lurches forward. “Thank god it’s late,” she mutters. 

Needy can’t figure out how to close the doors, so they clatter against the side of the bus as they make their slow ascent towards Devil’s Kettle. They also accidentally roll through a couple stoplights because it’s hard to reach the brake, and they never top 25 miles an hour, but she navigates the twists and turns of the mountain roads well enough to get them there. The moon is high and full, lighting the road enough for Needy to make it out and lending an air of auspiciousness to their ritual. 

Finally, though, they can hear the dull roar of the Devil’s Kettle, constantly in motion towards a destination unknown. Needy parks the bus, or at least stops it, as close as she can to the edge. Jennifer drags the incapacitated bandmembers to a big flat rock and whispers something in the lead singer’s ear that makes him wet himself. It smells like mud, and Needy’s heels squelch in the dead leaves and grass as she sets up the ritual: nick the members of Low Shoulder with the knife from her clutch; put their blood in the cardinal points; open the pages and squint at the tiny font. 

“You’re going to have to kill them in the circle after feeding them each other’s flesh,” Needy says. “And we dump their bodies into…” she gestures at the whirlpool behind them. 

The moonlight catches the planes of Low Shoulder’s faces. They’re only a little older than Needy and Jennifer, cheeks shiny with tears. She wonders if they’re dying in color or black and white. Either way, nighttime is the great equalizer between the bonded and the unbonded; darkness saps the color away from the trees and the sky that make up the most of their tiny town. If she were different, if her and Jennifer were different, maybe she’d feel worse about killing Nikolai, who deserved to die in a lifeless grey world. 

Ultimately she brings the pages up to her face and has the printer paper block her view of what sounds like Jennifer ripping their throats out, a gooey sound with tearing behind it. She scrunches her eyes shut after a while so she can’t tell if the colors go out. 

She didn’t open her eyes until she feels Jennifer’s blood-wet hands around her wrists, lowering the pages so that they could look in each other’s eyes. They leaned in and touched foreheads, noses rubbing together, and then Jennifer leaned in and, as softly as possible, presses her lips against Needy’s. 

Needy opens her mouth to Jennifer, letting their tongues meet, Jennifer smoothly keeping their teeth from meeting. Jennifer pursues it, bringing her hands up to Needy’s cheeks, pressing them so close that Needy felt like she could feel Jennifer’s heart beating. 

Needy breaks the kiss to suck in some air and rests her arms around Jennifer’s waist, wanting her near even as Jennifer kept nuzzling her. 

“Your hands are warm,” Needy says, and starts smiling so hard that Jennifer can’t kiss her properly. 

**PART VIIII: DEVIL I KNOW**

Being a god was cool, but Jennifer thinks it’s cooler that Needy looks at her without the sad-guiltiness in her eyes. Plus they make out exclusively now, like girlfriend-girlfriend, and Jennifer gets to have an arm around Needy’s shoulders every time Chip walks past their lockers. What a loser. She can’t smell his fear anymore but she can tell in how he flinches when she smiles. Anybody who calls them lesbi-gay in the wrong tone gets a sharp elbow to the ribs during gym class. 

Senior year is fine. Needy fills out college admissions for both of them and Jennifer gets some nerd to figure out their FAFSAs for a picture of her boobs. They’ll probably go to some state school ‘cause neither of them are made of money and for all Needy’s nerd looks, her grades aren’t actually that good. Apparently Jennifer’s junior year semester as a demon caused both of their gpas to dip. Whatever. Needy can joke about it now, kind of, calling it Jennifer’s “Bathory skin care routine” or some lame shit. The laugh was on her when her mom found all the overdue library books about demons under her bed and made Needy talk to a priest on the weekends. 

Eventually Jennifer will get them to France, or LA, or someplace trendy and hipster-like, so that Needy can drink at indie coffeeshops and become a lawyer or an editor or something. Jennifer, obviously, will be a model or a businesswoman or a reality tv star who is incredibly sexy. 

Right now, though, Jennifer and Needy mostly make out and occasionally fuck. Sometimes Needy gets all worried, like she thinks that Jennifer doesn’t give a shit, which is dumb. Needy is her soulmate, and previously that hasn’t stopped Jennifer from sucking face with other dudes, sure, but it’s not like she had figured out that Needy was an option. Internal heterosexuality, or whatever. Needy explained it once on a day she was wearing contacts, so she was even hotter than usual, and nobody could blame Jennifer for watching Needy’s excited eyes and her pink mouth. 

Jennifer places a kiss on the top of Needy’s head, which is tucked into Jennifer’s shoulder. She fell asleep watching some show about ghost hunting, the two of them curled up together on the couch at Jennifer’s house. Now Jennifer gets to change the channel to America’s Next Top Model reruns and pet Needy’s hair. 

Her life was the best, even if she had eaten people. 

**Author's Note:**

> jennifer's body is the apex of horror films no I will not be taking questions at this time


End file.
